Despite putting on a defiant face, the Congress has been rattled by the CPI(M) campaign over the high-flying copter campaign by KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala.
A miffed Mr Chennithala preferred to travel by train on Monday rather than create more ruckus even as the Election Commission clarified that the expenses of using a copter would be credited to political parties and not candidates.
It is also learnt that the KPCC has decided that state leaders should use the copter ‘sparingly’ rather than create a hullabaloo and give more ammunition to the CPI(M) and Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who has already said that the whirlybird was bought with 2G spectrum scam graft money. Reacting to Mr Achuthanandan’s claims, Union civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi said veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu always campaigned in a copter. “Achuthanandan does not know this since he can’t read English newspapers,” said Mr Ravi. Sources in the aviation industry say renting out copters could cost between `45,000 to `3 lakh per hour depending on the seating and engine capacity. For a small two seater helicopter one may have to shell out a little over `50,000 an hour, four seaters `75,000 to `90,000. For the bigger versions, which can accommodate around 25 people, the cost could be as high as `1.5 lakh to `2 lakh.